I think to some extent the French like to take an opposition stance to the US.
I can still remember how a decade ago the French stabbed Bush in the back over Iraq. But it’s easy when the US plays a leading role in defending Western values for the Europeans to call us cowboys and preen arrogantly about peace in our time.
When the US abdicates that leadership role and elects a radical Islamist to the White House not once but twice, the Europeans are finally forced to stand up for their own interests. There was a big leadership void, and if it wasn’t the French it could’ve just as easily been the British or Germans.
The French are individual thinkers and they’ll take an opposing side when their interests are in mind. I guess I admire that.
The Germans HATED Bush. the Germans on the street, that is. I would ask them, ‘what do you care? he’s not your president?’.
There’s just such a different standard for the French.
In hindsight, it was better to keep a secular evil dictator like Saddam in charge rather than a govt that cuddles up to Iran and which has thousands of people killed a year in a low-key civil war
After afghanistan, Pakistan should have been next